suz in rome

133 video: anywhere in rome

2006-09-01T16:19:00.000+01:00

Dailymotion blogged video
J14 Typ Rome Street
Video sent by susanreynolds23

132 manco roma

2006-08-23T11:58:00.000+01:00

Culture shock. I know it seems ridiculous to have culture shock after returning to my home country after just 11 weeks abroad, but it's true.

My olive oil here tastes like motor oil in comparison to Italy. And it's way more expensive.

Going to the grocery store and seeing wine prices in the range of $10-$15 for the cheap stuff instead of 2 or 3 euros is very depressing.

The little guy on the walk sign here looks ill-proportioned.

I feel ridiculously safe when crossing the street and there is a strange lack of motorcycles.

The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial look teeny tiny and brand-spanking-new.

I miss 'Cultura Moderna'.

131 video: s. maria in trastevere

2006-08-22T16:50:00.000+01:00

Dailymotion blogged video
Rome J (17)
Video sent by susanreynolds23

130 arrivederci

2006-08-21T22:06:00.000+01:00

Well, I made it home safe and sound and am writing from my home in DC right now. It was a pretty miserable travel experience due to the new no-liquid and no-cream regulations for aircraft. The security people tried to take away my asthma inhaler in Rome and my ink pen in Newark, but I managed to negotiate for both of them. Insert comment about common sense here.

above: one of Rome's hundreds (thousands?) public drinking fountains - guaranteed to have cold, clean water. See the hole on top where the water spurts out if you plug up the main hole? It was always funny seeing tourists crouch down at the bottom like dogs because they didn't know how to use the fountain.

Last Friday, I was really looking forward to coming home. My presentation went well, and on Saturday morning, I began to pack with happy thoughts of coming home again. And then, right around noon, it just hit me. I was really leaving Rome, and I got really sad. Bipolary sad.

So I set off that afternoon in wandering nostalgia through the winding streets of the centro: I visited the Pantheon, of course; I even discovered new streets (very rare after 11 weeks of exploring); I made some shaky movies on my digital camera; I heard an accordian player (the Italian stereotype that isn't even true in the tourist areas) and even snapped a photo of this lovely couple looking for a restaurant on a very typical Rome street:

One final bonus tip for if/when you go to Rome. Go to the lake in Villa Pamphili with two apples: one cut in small pieces and the other whole. Throw the pieces in slowly to give all the turtles equal opportunity to swim over from all parts of the lake. Then, when you have enough swarming turtles in the water in front of you, throw in the whole apple. One of the big strong turtles will grab the apple and dive, but he will lose control, and it will bob back to the surface after a few seconds. The turtles will continue to attack the apple until it's all gone. It is hilarious and I guarantee it's not in any of the guidebooks.

129 l'ultimo giorno

2006-08-18T08:09:00.000+01:00

(above: Etruscan Lupa with Renaissance Romulus and Remus)

Well, it has been 11 weeks, 129 blog posts, and 1 division championship since I started my US/ICOMOS internship. Today is my last day at ICCROM and it's going to be pretty busy with my presentation this afternoon, archiving my work, cleaning off my hard drive, burning CDs, tidying up, and so on.

I honestly haven't decided what I'm going to do tomorrow on my final day to hang out in the city... the beach? the park? the city center? revisit a museum? treat myself to a nice dinner? I was going to buy a big vat of olive oil to take home with me, but with potential airport security problems, it's not worth the trouble.

I will miss living here, but I'm also looking forward to being home again. I can't wait to use an American-style shower. And eat Mexican food. And the one flavor of gelato that doesn't exist in Italy - chocolate and peanut butter. And just being in my new house, of course. And hanging out with the husband and cat as well. And having conversations about college football.

Will there be culture-shock? The last time I returned to the US after several months abroad, I remember being astounded at the quantity of billboards on the side of the highway. What will seem unusual when I get back to DC?

Also, I just want to say thanks to those that kept up with my musings. It was nice knowing that people out there were reading my posts. I plan on writing 1 final wrap-up once I get back home in a few days. Until then, make like a cat in Rome and chill out (in a flowerbox).

128 cerveteri

2006-08-17T08:33:00.000+01:00

On Saturday, Jason and I took a local bus north of Rome to the city of Cerverteri. Cerveteri has been continuously settled since Etruscan times (8th-7th c BC). The modern city is somewhat interesting - there's a really neat castle in the main piazza and apparently there are periodically shows with sharks and piranhas.

We were there mostly for the tombs, so we walked out of the city on a delightful winding country road with practically no traffic, past farms with grape vines and a few friendly dogs. About 20 minutes later, we got to the archeological site. The map below only shows about a tenth of the site.

Cerveteri, originally called Caere, is simply a city of Etruscan tombs. The nicer tombs have 3 or 4 different rooms, and are dug out of these manmade hill structures. There were also a multitude of cheaper tombs - just a single small chamber facing the road. Most of the surviving Etruscan artifacts, including the Sarcophagus of the Spouses (Sarcofago degli Sposi), were found here at Cerveteri.

(above: a view of one of the smaller, isolated tombs)

The guidebooks and websites all called it an 'Indiana Jones' type adventure, and advised us to bring a flashlight. Well, this wasn't exactly true. The best tombs - containing interesting architectural elements such as columns with capitals, cornices, frescos, etc - were illuminated artificially. And the tombs that were dark, spooky, and required a flashlight were usually flooded anyway.

So we didn't get much use out of the flashlight that JG brought from the US, and then the Germans gave him hell for it in his Frankfort security adventure.

(Above: corbelling the passageway into the tomb. Corbelling is considered a primitive type of construction, but it sure has held up better than anything the Romans did. Well, OK. Except the Pantheon, but that structure has definitely had structural interventions.)

All in all, it was a delightful afternoon. At the end of the path through the tombs, there's a little on-site cafe and picnic tables. We had packed lunches, so we bought some cokes and relaxed under the pine trees, enjoying the fresh breezes and sunny spots. At one point I tossed the heel of the bread loaf into the brush and a gray cat burst out of the woods and ran after it and tried to eat it! So we amused ourselves for some time by tossing bread for the cat to eat.

127 una vacanza con il marito

2006-08-16T09:23:00.000+01:00

I'm back! Jason made it into town without being affected by the Gatorate terror restrictions last Thursday. He even made his connecting flight in Munich (30 minutes between touchdown and takeoff). I got to act like a tourist, running all over town, seeing the sites, and taking lots of photos. For example, here we are battling the crowds in the Vatican Museums:

And here we are after a delicious pizza lunch in front of Augustus' mausoleum... una pizza bianca dei fiori for me and una pizza diavola for Jason. Ask him sometime what he accidentally called our waitress when he was speaking Italian.

Here I am with some travertine cannonballs in one of the upper courtyards at Castel Sant'Angelo:

And here we are just being cah-yute & celebrating our 3rd anniversary:

Thanks for all the comments for when I was gone for the Ferragosto holiday. One of the more interesting comments was from a blogger in New Zealand, who linked to me on Around the World in 80 Blogs.

Enjoy the picture pages today!

126 non mi abbandonare

2006-08-16T09:15:00.000+01:00

Hey look, it's another dog speaking in the 1st person. This little guy is asking you not to abandon him.

125 san pietro alle 07,00

2006-08-16T09:10:00.000+01:00

If you are going to the Basilica of St. Peter's, I highly recommend going when it opens at 7 am. It is so peaceful and beautiful without swarms of people.

A floor grate in the Basilica: the popes' tombs are in the grotto below, and the Necropolis is the level below that.

The elephant was one of my favorite mosaics.

The basilica faces east; it's beautiful when the sun starts to come in around 07,30.

124 punteggiatura

2006-08-16T08:52:00.000+01:00

The inappropriate use of quotes is now a worldwide phenomenon.

I saw this article in the NY Times today about Romans upping the prices on the 'stranieri' (foreigners). Good. It means I'm not just paranoid - this really exists!

123 parcheggio cani

2006-08-10T08:32:00.000+01:00

I love this photo. This is one of the many "parcheggio cani" (dog parking spot) outside the bars and stores of Rome.

My time here in Rome is dwindling quickly. Jason arrives in Rome this evening (yay!!!). The Vatican gave us an appointment at 9:15 am tomorrow to visit the Necropolis under St. Peters. It's a 1 1/2 hour guided tour and I'm really looking forward to it. As a result, I won't be near a computer to update the blog on Friday.

Monday and Tuesday are holidays - Rome celebrates Ferragosto, which roughly translates to "it's hot and I don't want to work in August". The ironic thing is that we have been getting this nice cold front all week so the laugh is on the Italians this time.

For my few but loyal daily readers, this means that there probably won't be blog updates until next Wednesday, so stay tuned until then. And then the Friday after that will be the last day for blog posts and I fly home on Sunday. So my remaining time here is short indeed.

122 metro linea C

2006-08-10T08:22:00.000+01:00

(above: detail from one of the many exterior spaces in the fabulous Etruscan Museum)

Unlike most major European cities, Rome does not have a robust metro system: just lines A & B - one north/south and the other east/west. The two lines come together at the Termini station, which is always heavily and unpleasantly congested with people transferring lines.

Because of the rich archeological heritage of the city, neither line is very convenient to the city center. Not only are the underground vibrations damaging to the structures above through (buzz-word alert) soil-structure interaction, but unburied physical artifacts could be destroyed through the excavation process.

Just in the last month, excavations have begun on the new Metro Line C, which has been talked about for years. It still doesn't go quite into the heart of Rome, but it does fills in some of the gaps between lines A and B. The excavations are not the traditional civil engineering type with backhoes and automated equipment - they will be long, slow and tedious archeological excavations. I don't know what the time table is for the project, but I imagine this is going to take years or decades to accomplish.

It's kind of exciting because it's almost guaranteed that they will uncover some interesting structures and artifacts. For example, Nero's Domus Aurea was buried for over 1000 years until a worker found it in the Renaissance. And the Area Sacra Argentina, a site in the Centro with pagan temples pre-dating the Roman Forum, was only discovered in the last century.

This reminds me of something else I have seen often in the museums. The statues usually have a plaque at the base telling who they think the statue represents, how old they think it is, and where it was found. A ridiculous number of these statues were found at the bottom of the Tiber, which really makes me wonder how many thousands of interesting artifacts are still down there in the silt.

121 il passetto

2006-08-10T08:18:00.000+01:00

(above: the "Passetto", secret passage between the Vatican, to the left, and Castel Sant'Angelo, to the right)

Crossing the street in Rome is an adventure for a pedestrian. I can't tell you how many times that my survival instinct has kicked in and I have had to sprint out of the way of a motorcycle or car.

This makes me really wonder about these little old ladies that I see slowly crossing the street.
They aren't spry enough to hustle out of the way, but they do glare angrily at uncoming traffic, which is apparently pretty effective.

120 ascensori

2006-08-10T08:11:00.000+01:00

(above: my office building)

When I was at the US/ICOMOS orientation in DC, some of my colleagues from abroad had not had a chance to send email to friends and family in their home countries until I offered to let them use the computer in my apartment.

The women from India and Bulgaria were amazed at the elevators my apartment building, which is common an ugly 14-story developer building in downtown DC. First, they were surprised that if you pressed the elevator call button on one side of the lobby, the button on the opposite side would also illuminate. They were both used to pushing both buttons. They also talked about how big the elevators were.

Here in Italy, it was time for me to have the culture shock. My elevator in Diana's condominium is triangular in plan: approximately 2' by 4' by 4.5'. This is very small. The sign says that the capacity is 4 people, but in the few times I have shared the elevator with just 1 other person, I felt uncomfortably cramped. I'm used to it now but looking forward to seeing Jason's reaction later this afternoon.

119 tedesci in tutti luoghi

2006-08-09T09:06:00.000+01:00

Well, I think I missed my chance to see the Pope in action. I heard a choir singing close to the Vatican, so I decided to stop by and see what was going on. There was no Pope - just a piazza filled with Germans with rainbow flags (which stand for peace, not gay pride).

Later that night on the news, I saw that the Pope did indeed address the Germans - I must have just missed it.

Speaking of the Germans, they have taken over Rome. It's August now, so the Italians have left the heat of the city and are all at the beach or in the mountains. Apparently this week is some type of German Catholic youth week or something, so German teenagers are out en masse with their rainbow bandanas. And they are loud and they are obnoxious, with a peculiar affinity for chanting and clapping in loud groups.

118 dove?

2006-08-09T08:55:00.000+01:00

Last week I had an appointment with Professore Giorgio Croci of La Sapienza University, the founder of ISCARSAH and a big name in my field. I walked to his office after work. Small talk was in Italian, which was fine, and just as we began to actually talk about the course, Croci said something in Italian that I didn't catch, so I apologized and said my Italian wasn't too good, so he switched over English. Well, it turned out that the reason I didn't understand him was because he was using a proper name of one of his African colleagues.

I realized very soon that my Italian comprehension was far better than his English comprehension, so we swapped back over to Italian. It was really exhilarating to talk about my profession with one of the world's experts, and I was able to communicate just fine, inspite of numerous grammatical and pronunciation errors. It was a true linguistic victory.

Croci compared working with problematic old buildings to a doctor working with an elderly patient. You try to assess the symptoms as best as you can, take samples when appropriate, come up with a diagnosis, and act in an appropriate manner to neutralize threats to the building's health. I found it a really interesting analogy and has given me a new perspective on my work. People expect their structural engineers to be infallible - "is it safe or not"? Welllll, to be honest, there's uncertainty and probability in everything we do. Sadly, many structural engineers do believe that they are infallible.

Croci also recommended liberating oneself from the calculations - which are a structural engineer's bread and butter. But being able to carefully assess the condition and look for signs of distress are just as important as calculations - those uncertainties and probabilities can completely distort the mathematical results.

117 EUR 1

2006-08-08T09:13:00.000+01:00

From Sunday.

I'm south of the city and in the strange land of EUR, Mussolini's great urban design experiment: Esposizione Universale di Roma. Aside from a handful of buildings and monuments that are well-done, most of it is just as ugly and deserted as many U.S. cities on a Sunday.

The main reason I travelled to EUR was to see the the Museo della Civilta Romana (Roman Civilization), and it probably would have been really incredible if it was the 1st thing I saw here: full of ancient Roman inscriptions, artifacts, and art. But honestly, after 9 weeks, I'm a little saturated with this kind of stuff.

(above: Suz, saturated. I am mastering the art of self-photography.)

The two best parts of the museum were:

1. Plaster casts from Trajan's Column: 125 total panels that measure approximately 4' high by 9' long (below). It kind of feels like: here's the story of my civilization, in a nutshell, with heroes and commoners, animals, buildings, food, battles, religion, technology, engineering, how people fought, how they built, how they harvested. It makes you wonder how we would depict our current civilization graphically, without language.

The disappointing part was the lack of women in the depictions - 1% is probably a generous estimate. Although - the largest single figure portrayed is a woman, possibly a representation of Athena, although she is winged.

2. And the best part of the museum.... drumroll... is the 1:250 scale model of ancient Rome. This monster is approximately 40' x 40' in plan and shows all of Rome at its height in the 4th century (below).

In the background, by the way, is another plaster cast - this one from the Arch of Constantine.

I looked at this model for about an hour, and I could have easily stayed longer. It was so fascinating to see the recreation and compare it to what is left today. I also made a movie, which I would be happy to email to you if you're interested. Below is the center of ancient Rome, looking north-west. Start at the Colosseum. Palatine Hill is just to the left. And just to the right and a little higher of the Palatino is the Roman Forum with the basilica-plan temples. The larger complex to the right of the Colosseum is the bath of Trajan. And of course, the inner city wall is prevalent in the model. I took lots of photos, so when I have some time I'll be updating many old posts with applicable photos from the model.

116 EUR 2

2006-08-08T09:09:00.000+01:00

A little more about EUR. It's definitely designed for the scale of the automobile and not of the pedestrian, I thought as I crossed yet another wiiiiiiiiide highway with no cars as the sun beat down on the asphalt.

The one bright spot I found was the church of guess-who... yup, Peter and Paul.

It reminds me of Otto Wagner's church in Vienna that I liked so much in 1999. Traditional geometry (cross in plan, central dome), but interpreted with a clean, modernist palette of materials. I especially liked the duality and symmetry of the statues of Peter and Paul in front of the church: each under his own tree.

115 EUR 3

2006-08-08T09:04:00.000+01:00

Massimilano Fuksas' new Centro Congressi building has not broken ground yet, but the site has been fenced off, and a model of the building is displayed. The building concept is an enormous glass box with steel trusses that suspend a cloud-like morphous building from cables.

Structurally, and from the viewpoint of future conservation of this unique structure, intentionally endowing a building with so much potential energy makes me nervous. And on the architecture side, siting a convention center, which has the highest possible occupancy loads for egress, in the air is counter-intuitive at best.

It will be a challenge to engineers in 50 and 100 years to assess the corrosion of the steel cables. But it's still a neat concept, albeit one that every 2nd year architecture student has had at some point. It would work better in an temperate climate in respect to heat gain, of course. I look forward to coming back to Rome and seeing the completed building one day.

114 prego!

2006-08-08T08:17:00.000+01:00

(above: a very cute structural intervention)

Prego is more than a company that makes spaghetti sauce. It is an extremely useful word in Italian.

Scenario #1: You want to tell someone to go on ahead of you, for example into an elevator, through a door, etc. "Prego."

Scenario #2: Some one thanks you for something and you want to say 'you're welcome'... "Prego!"

Scenario #3: Someone spoke too fast and you want to say 'how's that again?" - "Prego?"

Scenario #4: You walk into a restaurant and the waiter wants to hand you a menu but you're not paying attention, he says "Prego."

Scenario #5: A mother asking/telling her kid not to do something is "Ti prego!"

113 manco il mio gatto

2006-08-07T10:57:00.000+01:00

HOW TO SNOOZE LIKE THE Q IN THREE EASY STEPS.

Step 1: Identify target.

Step 2: Make sure target is soft enough.

Step 3: (snore)

yes... I miss my cat!

112 bernini o borromini?

2006-08-07T08:46:00.000+01:00

There are two Baroque guys to know in Rome: Bernini and Borromini. Borromini actually started out as an apprentice to Bernini, then the two became collaborators, then competitors, and ended as enemies. Bernini was primarily a sculptor who dabbled in architecture. In the early days, Borromini would assist him with the architectural components, for that was his primary occupation. In the end, Bernini got more commissions and was more successful and Borromini committed suicide.

In Piazza Navona the two artists' works are in close proximity: Borromini's Sant'Agnese in Agone church is directly behind Bernini's enormous fountain "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi". There is a popular story that one of the river gods sculpted by Bernini is raising his hand to block the image of Bernini's church, but this is not true, since the fountain predates the church.

There's another location in Rome where you can compare parallel works of the two B's: Bernini's Sant'Andrea Alle Quirinale and Borromini's San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane. They are just down the street from each other, close to the Quirinale.

I first went to Bernini's church, supposedly his personal favorite, nicknamed the "pearl of the baroque". It is extremely unusual: instead of the traditional forms of basilica-plan, roman-cross-plan, greek-cross-plan, or circular plan, this church is an ellipse. What makes it even more unique is that instead of orienting the church on the long axis, you enter on the short axis. It's a neat effect, and a charming little space. I drew the plan and could really appreciate the geometric relationships of the side altars. Here is the dome:

Next, I walked down the road to Borromini's church. Ironically, it is also an ellipse in plan, although the entry is on the long axis, per the conventional solution. And here is its dome:

Even though I had always had a soft spot for Borromini, after seeing Bermini's geometry, San Carlo was a let down. It just wasn't organized as well, and there was even this strange left-over-space corridor on the side, which led to a really fantastic spiral stair that went up to the bell tower and down to the basement (below).

111 il giornale dei tigri

2006-08-07T08:36:00.000+01:00

(above: fish statue in Piazza del Popolo)

All weekend long I was a nervous wreck, waiting for JG to text me scores from the double-elimination CAN softball tournament in DC. Auburn did well, they really did, although I can't help but be disappointed in the results of the last game. We were seeded in what was called the "Bracket of Death" and had much more difficult opponents this year than last year. Here is the breakdown.

Round 1: beat UMass
Round 2: lost to Penn State
Round 3: beat Colorado
Round 4: beat Syracuse
Round 5: beat Pitt
Round 6: lost to Maryland

Apparently, Maryland scored 5 runs in the top of the 7th to tie the game and force extra innings. They scored 2 more in the 8th to finish it off. There's no team I'd like to beat more than Maryland, because they are very arrogant and are always bad-mouthing Auburn. Oh well. It was still a great tourney run, and a truly great team to play on.

110 san pietro in vincoli

2006-08-04T17:00:00.000+01:00

After Domus Aurea turned out to be a wash, I headed to another nearby site: San Pietro in Vincoli, a.k.a. St. Peter in Chains. This small church is named for the relics displayed in the main altar: St. Peter's chains from Rome and from Jerusalem, which have miraculously fused together.

The other notable item in the church is a Michelangelo statue of Moses. Although I'm a big fan of the Pieta, I didn't really like this Moses. The proportions seemed off adn I didn't really like the composition. Granted - I read in my tourist book that the composition intended by Michelangelo is not the way the statue is currently displayed. So maybe that's it.

As in many of the other churches that display famous works of art, the light in that chapel can only be activated by putting 50 eurocents in the box. The light lasts a couple of minutes, and then someone else has to add change.

There were some more obnoxious American tourists on-site. As you now, appropriate dress is required to enter churches in Rome. This usually means sleeves and shirts/pants that at least cover your knees. I carry a little wrap to put on when I go inside, although I do find the tradition stifling in the August heat. Sometimes the churches are monitored, but in general, they are not.

Two American teenagers, both girls, tried to go in to the church without sleeves. They did not see the resident monk on the other side of the church who rushed up to them and gave them these paper dresses to put on over their clothes, similar to a paper gown at the doctor's office, speaking in Italian the entire time. The girls were mortified by this turn of events, and retreated behind one of the columns: hunched over and trying unsuccessfully to hold back their laughter. It was pretty funny for me too.

109 nero il pazzo

2006-08-04T16:59:00.000+01:00

And here's what I did last Wednesday. I know, I'm always playing a little catchup.

Today I tried to visit the Domus Aurea, the 130 room palace that nutty Nero built on the Esquiline hill. Literally, it means "gold house".

In case you need a refresher, or never knew, Nero is one of those bad Roman emperors. You always hear these rumors about him - mainly sleeping with his mother and then killing his mother, but also things like calling himself an actor, fiddling while Rome burnt, inviting animals to parties, etc. When I checked out the Wiki page, though, it seems that Nero's bad rep has been augmented through the generations, and maybe he's not such a bad guy after all.

Oh, I also found this interesting article comparing him to George Bush .

So, back to the story. I hike up the Equiline Hill behind the Colosseum to find that the Domus Aurea was closed for restoration. It was still an interesting site, though... Nero was widely hated as an emperor, and when he was succeeded by Trajan, his palace was filled with rubble and dirt. Trajan built his baths right on top of Nero's house, and as a result, it was lost to history until rediscovered accidentally during the Renaissance. The high ground level remains, so I was able to walk around in the ruins of the baths literally on top of Nero's enormous house.

The most innoventive and famous part of the house is the Octagon Room that sat on a mechanism that slowly rotated the room 360 degrees while Nero ate. This room has been restored to its original height, so it pops out of the hill as a parapet wall.

108 campeonato...

2006-08-04T11:44:00.000+01:00

Big congratulations to the Auburn Tigers, who defeated the University of Massachusetts by the score of 26-1 last night in the 1st round of the annual CAN Softball Tournament.

Auburn starts off on Saturday against one of the best teams in the league, Penn State. Sixty-one teams; one champion. Good luck, Tigers!

107 dolci per venerdi

2006-08-04T10:00:00.000+01:00

It's Friday and I thought you might like some Italian sweets...

above - one of my favorite photos so far

above - one type of chocolate is never enough. the tin in the back, right corner is "chocolate with hot peppers" and although I haven't tried it, it's a fairly popular flavor in Rome.

above - just a random window close to Piazza Campo dei Fiori

106 palatino

2006-08-03T11:21:00.000+01:00

Some quick picture pages, as I have very little time today! Above: the ruins of Palatine Hill overlooking the Circus Maximus.

105 tartaruge nel lago

2006-08-03T11:17:00.000+01:00

See all those little dark spots in the pond? They are turtles at Villa Pamphili. There are tons of them, and when you stand next to the water, they swim towards you, hoping to get a snack!

104 l'ingresso antico a roma

2006-08-03T11:05:00.000+01:00

Back in the day, the main pilgrimage route to Rome was from the north. I'll show you how they entered the city in four images. (Above: They wandered through medieval winding little streets until they came to this gate, the Porto del Popolo, originally part of the ancient Roman wall, and now on Via Flaminia.)

(Above: A little closer to the gate, you can see the beginning of the open space and a church in the distance.)

(above: Looking through the gate, you can see Ramases II obelisk, now under restoration, brought to Rome in 10 BC, with one of the three Santa Maria's in the background.)

(above: Directly inside the Porta Flaminia, we can now see Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria del Montesano. Santa Maria del Popolo is not seen in the photo, but is directly to the left. Directly behind the obelisk is the beginning of the Via del Corso, probably the most important road in Rome. You can take that street straight to the heart of the ancient world.)

103 nervi & zaha

2006-08-02T08:21:00.000+01:00

Modernist and post-modernist buildings are extremely scarce in Rome, but a sort of modernist district is being formed north of the city. The oldest piece is Pier Luigi Nervi's Palazzetto (above), followed by Renzo Piano's Auditorium, and now Zaha Hadid's new MAXXI museum.

I had heard that Nervi's building had been abandoned, but luckily for me, the doors were propped open and no one was in sight, so I snuck in to look at the interior. I was blown away. Nervi was a structural engineer that really pushed the limits of reinforced concrete shell structures. I had assumed that his shells were of uniform thickness. I had also considered his buildings pretty ugly for the most part. But the interior surface is composed of structural ribs in an intricate radial geometry.

Design-wise, it's always risky to use such strict symmetry, especially considering construction errors and construction tolerance. But it's so nice to see it well-executed, and so sad that this movement of sculptural structural concrete from the 50s and 60s has more or less died out. From the structural perspective, it seems that we have not really expanded our knowledge as a civilization in recent times. Although there have been significant breakthroughs in mathematical understanding (i.e. moment distribution, finite element method), these have assisted computing time, but I don't really see any recent breakthroughs in the implementation of ideas. Are modern structural engineers any more knowledgeable than the ancient Romans? Part of me would argue no... mostly because we have to dedicate so much time to understanding legalese building codes.

Right next door is Zaha Hadid's site. An Iraqi, she is arguably the most famous female architect of all time. Unfortunately, only a small amount of the emerging structure is visible, although the level of craftsmanship fo the formwork and scaffolding alone is quite impressive. She's using a lot of concrete as skin (and hopefully as structure too), which is finished with expert craftsmanship which makes it appear as smooth as marble.

102 museo etrusco

2006-08-01T09:13:00.000+01:00

On Friday night I walked all the way from Trastevere to the Etruscan Museum, north of Villa Borghese. Unfortunately, I was tempted to stop in a number of shops proclaiming "SALDI!" No purchases, though, as I am just too big for Italian clothes. Also, the shopping diversions took longer than planned, so I arrived at the Museum at 6:30, leaving only an hour until closing time at 7:30.

It was a delightful museum!!! The building footprint is about 75% gardens, courtyards and open spaces, and the remainder are small galleries. Because I was working against the clock, I went first to the most famous piece: Sarcofago Degli Sposi. It's a communal tomb for a husband and wife who either died as teenagers, or who wanted to be remembered as teenagers. They have these perky, happy smiles, and their oversized eyes are almost Egyptian.

I liked the sarcophagus so much that I burned about 20 minutes of my hour mkaing a sketch that didn't even turn out to be very good (above). So, I had to hurry through the rest of the museum and I really wish that I could have stayed longer. The Etruscan pottery, weapons and statues are so different from all of the Roman artifacts that I have seen so far. Maybe it is just because they are so different, but I found them much more charming.

The Etruscans are not well understood by historians. We know that they lived in central Italy around 800-500ish BC, and we know that they traded with the Greeks sailing up the River Tiger. We don't know where they originated, but we do know where they went: conquered/assimilated into Roman culture.

You can really see the Greek influence in the Etruscan pottery: an orange burnt-earthy color base with fields of black and illustrations etched out in white depicting athletes, battles, and various deities. I'm starting to feel that in order to really understand Rome, I need to go to Greece.

Although I am sad to have missed an in-depth tour of the museum, I can look forward to seeing more Etruscan art and artifacts at Cerveteri, about 60 miles north of Rome. Cerveteri is best known for its Etruscan tombs, but there is also an Etruscan Museum on site.

One thing that stood out during my speedy trip through the galleries was the use of angels in the images. I guess I thought that angels originated with Judaism, but the Etruscan versions are more-or-less identical to the modern Christian representation.

postnote - I just found this website, Mysterious Etruscans, that also commented on the Etruscan angels.

101 leggere

2006-07-31T08:40:00.000+01:00

(above, the "lungotevere" - roads that are right next to the river shaded by trees)

I have been enjoying my time reading my two Italian-language books. I am almost finished with Angels and Demons and I am so disappointed. Yes, I read it before, so I was already prepared for the cliched characters, language, and plot. But I was reading it because the book goes into such detail about Rome, and I expected the author to at least have gotten the facts more accurate than he did. He writes that Santa Maria della Vittoria is right on Piazza Barberini. Nope, it's a 10 minute walk away. His description of Castel Sant'Angelo is fanciful when compared to reality. Some of the vistas that he describes simply do not exist. I wonder if he just had a week vacation in Rome, took some photos and then made the rest up. Anyway. I only have about 20 pages or so to go before I finish my first book in Italian. I discovered that my passive vocabulary is great for dialogue, but I have to frequently refer to the dictionary to get through the action sequences.

The other book is "The Minds of the Italians". Based on the content, it is really amusing and interesting to read, but based on the language, I have to concentrate much harder and go to the dictionary more often. Here is one passage, describing books that foreigners write about Italy:

"Modern stories all fall into two categories: love chronicles and diaries of disillusion. The first suffers from an inferiority complex in regards to our private lives (usually with a chapter about the importance of the family and another on the excellence of Italian cooking). The second type shows a superiority complex in regards to our public agendas (there is always a strong condemnation of corruption and a section on the mafia). The love stories are generally written by American women, and show love without interest: they describe a seasonal paradise, where the climate is perfect and the people cordial. The diaries of disillusion are almost always written by British men, and reveal interest without love: they describe a bewildering place populated by elusive people and governed by diabolical mechanisms."

Gulp! Hopefully I'm not falling too much into either category - just trying to provide some memoirs for myself and some entertainment for you (or at least some distraction from your jobs), focusing on the language, history and culture of Rome. I could try to be more pessimistic and write more about the beggars in the street, or the littering, or the graffiti, or the time when I think the old guy at the market ripped me off, but I'd rather write about the good stuff.

100 vista del vittoriano

2006-07-31T08:30:00.000+01:00

The Vittoriano monument sits on Capitoline Hill in the dead center of Rome. The ancient city lies to the south (Roman Forum, Palestine Hill, Colosseum), and the centro lies to the north (Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Via del Corso, Pza. del Popolo). I took these photos from the top of the Vittoriano looking...

(below: looking NW, Trajan's Column and Forum)

(below: West, Trajan's Market, Augustus' Forum)

(below: SW, Colosseum in the distance, Roman Forum)

That big road running down the middle was one of Mussolini's bright ideas. He wanted a clear vista of ancient Rome and the Colosseum from his office in the Vittoriano so he could impress Hitler, so the story goes. So this road went right through the middle of ancient Roman history, the remaining ruins are on both sides and the CRAZY traffic makes crossing the road an adrenaline rush.

099 la mia camera

2006-07-28T09:44:00.000+01:00

Here is a picture of my room, taken last Saturday, when I decided to stay out of the heat and spent the whole day indoors, working in my sketchbook, learning Italian and reading. It was a really enjoyable day off. It's hard work being a tourist every day!

When I first got here, Lucia, an American despite her Italian name, warned me that Italians are a lot cleaner than Americans. This was not good news for me, since even for an American, I am below-average on the cleanliness scale.

At Delfina's house, and at Diana's house, a woman comes once a week to clean my room, along with the rest of the condo. At work, people clean my office each night. And after 8 weeks of having my things hidden, thrown away, put in random containers, and moved, I can say with some authority that Italian house-cleaners are either vindictive, have a bizarre sense of humor, or are just plain crazy.

It started my very 1st week at Delfina's when I woke up in the middle of the night to find my umbrella under my pillow. Apparently, in Italy, umbrellas do not belong in closets but under pillows. More recently, my calculator was disassembled into two pieces: cover and calculator. I found one piece under a stack of envelopes on my desk, and the other tucked in a corner of my bookshelf. Perhaps the keypad was dirty. My shoes are always in a different location after cleaning day, although at least they are easy to find.

At work, I used to open the window during the day to get a breeze. The first 3 days I forgot to shut it and came in the next morning to find that someone had shut it after hours. The 4th day, I remembered to shut it at the end of the day, but was surprised to see the next morning that someone had re-opened it!

Also, I keep my work in piles of paper on my desk that have special meaning to me. However, about once a week, someone decides after hours that all my paper should be neatly stacked in one large pile together. AND I don't think my trash can has ever been in the same place twice.

098 che diavolo?

2006-07-28T09:41:00.000+01:00

Well! It looks like one certain husband is enjoying his reprieve from married life... and some certain AU softball players that are going to be riding the bench next season...

097 vuoi ancora piu?

2006-07-27T14:09:00.000+01:00

I added sketches to two old posts today:

1. Campeoni del Mondo
2. Cappuchin Monks

096 due chiese importanti

2006-07-27T08:56:00.000+01:00

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church specified 7 special churches for pilgrims to visit. The seven churches of Rome are:

San Pietro (St. Peter)
San Giovanni in Laterano (St. John in Lateran)
Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major)
Santa Croce in* Gerusalemme (Holy Cross in Jerusalem)
San Paolo Fuori le Mura (St. Paul outside the walls)
San Sebastiano Fuori le Mura (St. Sebastian outside the walls)
San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura (St. Lawrence outside the walls)

*Linguistic note. I don't understand why this is IN Jerusalem and not OF or FROM Jerusalem.

I recently headed south to the outer wall of Rome to see 2 of these basilicas. Above is the Baroque facade of Santa Croce. In plan, the two outer bays are concave so the elevation looks squished.

As you walk around the building, there's no more baroque; the medieval brick walls are visible and are also very appealing, in a completely different way. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to go inside, and it's on the outskirts of town so I'm not sure if I will make it back to see the interior. It contains relics of wood splinters and nails from the cross.

I'm pretty pleased with the sketch and had some fun with watercolor.

And I also saw San Giovanni, the church of the city of Rome, whose gates are pictured above. It was one of many previous homes of the papacy, and the most impressive part were the 12 enormous statues of the apostles down the central nave.

Bonus: I updated the Mamertine Prison and Roman Forum post with photos.

Today is also notable because it is the beginning of my dad's retirement. Congrats!

095 campeoni di softball!

2006-07-26T10:22:00.000+01:00

Tigers win again! Auburn defeats the Tribe in extra innings on JG's grand slam. (In case anyone wondered, this is exactly why I married him.) So, we finish the regular season at 12-2 and it is likely that we will have the #4 seed in the 61 team tournament. Brackets and seeding will be announced on Friday night, and the first round of tournament games start on Monday.

Blogger is still being a little buggy, but I managed to upload a collage of recent photos, below. I also updated the Ostia Antica post with photos, so scroll down for those.

094 nove foti nuovi

2006-07-26T09:03:00.000+01:00

Pza. San Pietro, Villa Borghese, Pza. del Popolo
Villa Pamphili, Farnese Bridge, Aventine Hill,
Church detail on Via Giulia, Il Vittoriano, Castel Sant'Angelo

the b/w and sepia filters are courtesy of Picasa, a free download from Google

093 ostia antica

2006-07-25T09:21:00.000+01:00

On Sunday, I visited the site of Ostia Antica, located some 20 miles or so south of Rome. (Above: marble mosaic from Ostia Antica).

Ostia = name of the city
Antica = "ancient", distinguishes it from modern-day Ostia.

Ostia was founded between the 7th and 4th centuries BC where the Tiber Riber meets the Meditteranean. Orginally, it is believed that the town was sited at this strategic point for military defense. As Rome's power grew, the defense was less important, and Ostia functioned as the primary shipping port of Rome.

The ruins in Ostia are much better preserved than those in Rome, because the port and city was abandoned when the Romans diverted the flow of the Tiber. In particular, the mosaic floors of many of the bathhouses on site are intact: a field of white with images in black of Neptune, porpoises, and swimmers.

Upon arriving at the site at about 11 am, I was amazed just to get a sense of the scale of the city. It was huge. I walked down the main road, the Decumano Massimo, taking occasional meandering paths through other parts of the city. I felt like an adventurer in a ghost town - there were probably a few hundred tourists there, but once you got off the main street you were completely alone.

Some of the best mosaics on site are hidden in random buildings with no signage whatsoever, like these two pink little angels:

Seeing that image really makes you consider conservation approaches for exterior mosaic. Do you leave it in its original context, to fade under sun and rain, and to be stolen by tourists? If I had wanted to, I could have scooped up these mosaic pieces, put them in my bag and walked off the site. Or do you take them out of context and place them in a museum where you can control the temperature, light, and humidity?

By about 2 pm, I was exhausted from the heat and a little sunburnt so I headed back to the train station and continued south to the end of the line to enjoy the rest of the day on the beach with my Italian-language books.

092 solo 4 settimane piu

2006-07-24T09:20:00.000+01:00

Above: Quick sketch of the Tiber with St. Peter's in the background.

Welp, there are only 4 weeks left for me here at ICCROM. I have to admit I'm getting just a bit homesick, and looking forward to Jason's arrival 2 weeks from Thursday.

I have some meetings to attend today, but will try to post after work this afternoon.

Happy Birthday to Laird, 30 today!

091 numeri

2006-07-21T08:42:00.000+01:00

In Italy, Europe, and Mexico, the commas and decimals in numbers are reversed. So, nineteen thousand is 19.000 and a gelato might cost you 1,50. I'm curious to know where else in the world this occurs. I do know that scientific papers are published in English, and use decimals and commas like we do...

And to tell time, the colon we use in English is replaced by a comma. Plus, military time is used exclusively, so 8:30 pm is 20,30.

A few random blog notes - I had to introduce comment moderation because I was getting too much comment spam. Also, the computer I use to download photos is broken, so until I find a computer shop that will sell me a USB cable, I'm not going to be uploading more photos.

090 carcere mamertino

2006-07-21T08:24:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday, I finally walked through the Roman Forum itself. I know this is probably a bit overdue since it is now week 7 of my 11 week trip, but the gates to the historic area close at 6:30 and I never seem to get there on time.

One of the things that surprised me was that there's very little historic fabric left. The round temple of the Vestal Virgins, where the government-ordained 30 year virgins tended an eternal flame, was one of the more interesting structures in the Forum. There were only a few columns left, and upon close inspection, only about 10% of the stone appears to be original (below).

On my way out of the Forum, headed north towards Piazza Venezia, I stopped in the Mamertine Prison, a 2nd century BC structure. According to one of the guides I had eavesdropped on some weeks ago, this was the church where Peter and Paul were imprisoned while in Rome.

The structure, as all the other structures from ancient times, is about 15 feet below contemporary street level, so you descend one set of stairs to get to the main level, and the a second set to get to the prison space.

At the main level, originally prisoners were lowered through a hole about 2' in diameter into the lower chamber, a room with no other openings. Now a curved masonry staircase has been added, which I descended to the dungeon.

The prison is a small space, approximately round in plan, with a radius of some 5 feet, and the stone ceiling is low enough that it just barely cleared my head at the high point. I was surprised to see a door at this level, buried underground, and I don't know the history of that opening. It's definitely old, but I don't know whether it's 2nd c. BC old or 3rd c. AD old. When I first entered the room, there were about 10 tourists, which made it quite crowded, but it was actually useful to hear people talk about the site, since I didn't know too much of the history/story.

(Incidentally, the Italian word 'storia' is used interchangeably for both 'history' and 'story'.)

They said that Peter converted the other prisoners with holy water that rose from the floor, and indeed there is a cylindrical pit in the floor of about a 12" diameter that is connected to the sewer system. They also said that prisoners were drowned in this room, but I couldn't find any mention of this on the web, although numerous people were executioned in other fashions. According to Wiki, there is a good deal of dispute on whether or not Peter and Paul ever reached Rome at all.

Luckily, the tourists all filtered out and I had the place to myself for about 5 or 6 eerie minutes. Living in Rome for the last 7 weeks has given me an interesting sense of the passage of time, but being alone in this dark, damp, musty dungeon from the 2nd century BC is one of the handful of places that really feels old old old. It's a little unsettling when it hits you.

089 faccio la tifa per i tigri

2006-07-20T11:32:00.000+01:00

Congrats Tigers for manhandling Bama 13-3, and welcome to...

11-2 on the season
a 7 game winning streak
9-0 in the division
a 1-0 record against Alabama
a guaranteed better finish than last year's 10-4
and 1 win away from clinching the division championship

088 autobus pubblicita'

2006-07-20T11:31:00.000+01:00

Tales from the bus... the number 23 bus, which I take to work, is the
nicest bus that I have ridden in Rome. It's new, clean, with working
air conditioning, and it even has this little centralized TV screen
that informs and entertains the riders.

My commute is about 15-25 minutes, depending on traffic, and during
that time, blips are shown from news headlines and current events,
movie previews, and other public announcements. It also has little
animated horoscopes each morning. I had to figure out that "bilancia"
was mine from the little image of a scale, and then of course realized
the relation to "balance" in English.

There's also a funny little cartoon skit that repeats every 30 minutes
or so with a fat, blond, woman on a bus with sunglasses, a camera
around her neck, and shopping bags. A sneaky thief appears from
behind her and tries to pickpocket her, but at the last minute a cat
from under her hat jumps out onto the thief's face and hisses and
scratches at him. Then the text appears - in English - "Watch out for
pickpockets!" Funny funny.

087 museo d'arte moderna

2006-07-20T09:29:00.000+01:00

from Sunday's journal entry:
I tried to go to Villa Borghese, the only remaining major art museum that I haven't seen yet. I went at 5 pm, which usually guarantees empty museums, but the place was so crowded and I didn't want to stand in the sweaty line of tourists complaining, so I struck out farther north to head towards the Etruscan Museum. It was also closed, but just next door is another museum strangely missing from the tourist guides: The Museum of Modern Art.

Ah yes, my favorite genre of museum - I guess I got caught up in all the ancient history buzz to not actively seek this out. Obviously Rome and Italy are not known for their contributions to contemporary art and architecture, so I guess I understand why this museum is so undercover. The very first room were filled with colors and these long Klimt-like tapestries, and my first thought was "why on earth have I been wasting my time in all these history museums?"

I enjoyed my time in the museum, and especially enjoyed the statue pictured above "Similia Similibus", Maccagnani. After seeing so much classical art of heroes and warriors and ancient gods, it was quite a bright spot to just see the simple hello of a friendly cat in stone.

Inspired by this, I googled a bit to find all types of (post)modern architecture around Rome. There are basically 7 pieces, two of which I have seen:

1. Renzo Piano's Auditorium - already seen, elegant, understated
2. Zaha Hadid's MAXXI - (under construction), plan to visit soon
3. Richard Meier's Ara Pacis - already seen, very bad, pro-Meier article, anti-Meier article
4. Richard Meier's Dio Padre Misericordia - critically acclaimed, way out in the 'burbs, plan to visit soon
5. Massimiliano Fuksas' Centro Congressi - (under construction), plan to visit soon
6. Rem Koolhaas - no info yet
7. Calatrava - no info yet, something in Tor Vegata suburb

086 numero otto

2006-07-19T11:57:00.000+01:00

Auburn climbs up two spots to a record #8 in the latest CAN Coaches' Poll.

The 10-2 Tigers take on the 4-6 Tide in the Iron Bowl tonight at 6:30 pm EST.

085 storia di roma

2006-07-19T10:49:00.000+01:00

Um, not that I'm obsessive compulsive or anything, but I decided to diagram the history of Rome recently. Enjoy!

084 libri nuovi

2006-07-18T10:29:00.000+01:00

(above: Bernini's famous colonade at Pza. San Pietro)

For my Italian language studies, I brought 4 books with me on the trip:
1. dictionary
2. verb conjugation book
3. "Italian For Beginners"
4. "Italian Grammar"

"Italian for Beginners" is a little white book geared toward tourists, and a fun approach to learning language. You learn little spots of vocabulary ("at the beach", "in the railway station", "at the hotel", etc), and almost everything is in present tense. "Italian Grammar" is a big green book, geared toward university students, and is a rigorous approach to learning the language. Unlike the little white book, which teaches you the main idea (i.e. "il" is masculine and "la" is feminine), this book gives you all of the rules and exceptions in one monumental scholastic dose (il, lo, l', la, le, i, gli).

I had intended to work through the big green book, and I made it through the 1st 3 chapters or so, when I opened the little white book and promptly changed plans. So, I'm happy to report today that I'm actually almost completely done with the little white book (3 chapters left of about 27).

Although my intent was to go back to the green book, I recently gave in to the temptation to visit a bookstore and now I have a new study plan............

I bought 2 books in Italian!
1. Angeli e Demoni, Dan Brown
2. La Testa degli Italiani, Beppe Severgnini

The first one I bought because (1) I have read it in English, so I don't have to worry about missing out on the plot due to language difficulties, and (2) it describes many of Rome's buildings and sculptures in detail.

I bought the second one because (1) this is probably the only contemporary Italian author that I know by name, AND I have already read one of his books, and (2) literally translated as "The Minds of the Italians", the book describes the author's 10 day trek through Italy with foreigners, discussing what makes the Italian people tick, and (3) it was on sale, 5 euros in hardback.

And I couldn't be happier that my reading comprehension level is much higher than I had thought. I can understand the books without using the dictionary when I'm lazy and want to relax, and when I want a more academic effort, I can look up new vocabulary and scratch it in the margins as I go. Let's hear it for passive learning!

Unfortunately, this is going to make me avoid the big evil green grammar book even more, although I desperately need a better understanding of the numerous Italian past tenses.

083 l'acqua vergine

2006-07-18T10:06:00.000+01:00

As you know, one of the reasons that Rome was able to flourish in imperial times were the 11 main aquaducts that radiated out from the city center. The water was used for drinking and cooking and bathing in the famous bathhouses.

How times have changed, I thought this morning, as I couldn't coax a single drop of warm water out of the shower. Ice cold. Antartica cold. Yuck.

Water freely runs in hundreds (thousands?) of fountains in Rome. I keep trying to get pictures of dogs drinking the water spurting down, but have not yet been successful because they don't drink for very long.

The typical fountain design is so simple and so ingenious. It's just a curved tube for the water with a small hole in the top. When you want a drink, you plug up the main pipe and higher pressure water arcs out of the top hole.

I had heard that some true Romans still get their drinking water from the city fountains rather from the tap, but I thought this was one of those tourist stories until yesterday - I saw an elderly man in my neighborhood filling up jugs of fountain water to take up to his condominium.

The water in the image above is the Acqua Vergine - virgin water; it is supposedly the best water in Rome. Tasted normal to me. :)

082 all'interno del colosseo

2006-07-17T09:13:00.000+01:00

Last week, I finally went inside the Colosseum. Being stupid, I waited in a long line for my free ticket, when I could have walked to the left and gone straight to the entry machines because of my ticket from Palatino.

To be honest, the inside was pretty underwhelming, so I'm glad I didn't pay the 11 euros. Speaking of which, Elisabeth will be pleased to know that some obnoxious tourists that were not American joined my lists! Overheard in the ticket line: "I'm not going to pay 11 euros for a ticket! That's bloody ridiculous... What? The tour's not included? 5 more euros? Just wait until you come to London, you just remember this when you get into all of our museums for free!"

And actually, I don't think that's true - I don't remember any London museums that were free.

(above: view of Via Sacra from inside the Colosseum)

The parts of the Colosseum that I really wanted to see were the foundations and the rooms below the arena, where slaves, gladiators, and wild animals were kept. Unfortunately, this part was inaccessible. You can only walk around the entry level, and then up one flight of stairs to the second tier.

I listened in to some of the tour guides, and heard the usual stories about gladiators and animal fights. During the famed animal fights in the Colosseum - lions, crocodiles, elephants, etc - it wasn't an empty, dusty arena, as depicted in the movies. Instead, the Romans tried to recreate the natural habitats of the animals with trees, brush, and ponds, so the human hunters could hide in trees and surprise the animals, or the tigers could hide in the brush and surprise the humans.

Careful, though - don't confuse this 'good-natured' game with the plain executions. In those cases, the ring was empty except for the condemned thieves/arsonists/criminals, who had been rubbed down with animal blood to make them extra appealing to the lions or tigers, who had been starved. This pretty much ensured a quick and gruesome death.

Also, historically, the Colosseum was free to the middle and upper social classes. The Republic (and then the Empire) also supplied citizens with a free weekly sack of wheat, I suppose to keep morale up. I wish contemporary government supplied more free entertainment and food. All I get these days is a public library that isn't that great, and taxation without representation.

(above: top of Colosseum wall. These stones look quite precarious to me.)

081 crypti cappuccini

2006-07-17T08:48:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I visited the Crypti Cappuccini - The Crypt of the Cappuchin Monks, very Nancy Drew.

The crypt is found on Via Veneto, just up from Piazza Barberini. The main church, Santa Maria della Concezione, is on the left, and a small door on the right leads into the crypt. The crypt consists of about 6 chambers in a row of varying sizes, with masonry vaults spanning each room. The visitor walks down a narrow corridor, and the crypt rooms are all on the left.

Inside each room are dead monks. There are a few hundred skeletons in each room, and over 4000 skeletons total. In most rooms, there were between 3 and 9 full skeletons wearing the Capuchin robes, some standing up, others lying down. The rest of the room were decorated with a certain type of bones. For example, there would be a wall of skulls, a vault of leg bones, and a ceiling of shoulder blades. Even the chandelier lamps hanging in the corridor were made completely of human bones.

Sorry that I can't relate the technical names of the bones, but it seems that most Americans know more about anatomy than I do, as I overheard many a mother or father telling their children: "see, there's a femur! And look, a scapula!", while the kids looked either pre-vomitatious or like this was the coolest thing they ever saw.

The visitor views these rooms via a narrow dead-end corridor, crowded with tourists (almost all American, not sure why...). So you're close enough to reach out and touch the bones. But it's not just piles of bones laying around - they have been artistically composed in abstract architectural patterns.

Most of the remains were only bone, although some cadavers must have gone through some kind of mummification process, since the skin was still intact.

I suppose the monks were reminding themselves that the physical body is meaningless after death - but whatever the rationale, it's definitely a unique place to visit.

080 dieci ragioni di visitare l'Italia

2006-07-14T09:40:00.000+01:00

Mmmm, gelato, anyone? In a country of many culinary treats, this is the best - cheap, portable, and abundant, with millions of flavors to try.

I could have used some gelato yesterday, as I finally made it out to the beach. It's about a 30 minute train ride from my office, and total transit time from my house is about an hour. Nothing spectacular, just sand and water, and cool breezes. Everyone says to go during the week because it's miserably crowded on the weekends, and it was indeed nice.

070 pantheon

2006-07-14T09:32:00.000+01:00

M AGRIPPA LF COS TERTIUM FECIT means, "Agrippa made this". This is not exactly true, since the Pantheon has had significant changes over its 1800 year history. For example, did you know that it was not originally constructed with an oculus or a dome? Agrippa designed a wood roof with the main beams radiating out from the center.

Anyway, the Pantheon is one of the very best sites in Rome and all over the world. I stop by this Piazza and stroll through the interior about once a week. There are always a lot of people, but it's worth it to be in the cool interior space which is fairly dark, except for the radiant light coming through the oculus. Raffaele is buried here, and I think Vittorio Emanuele is, but I'm not sure. Mostly, I just sit (there are actually benches) and appreciate the space. I keep planning to get up early over the weekends and visit the Pantheon before the crowds hit, but getting up early has never been my strongpoint.

Just like every other pagan structure in Rome, the Catholic church has claimed the Pantheon as "All Saints Church" or something like that. When I was there earlier this week, there was a wedding going on inside, but tourists were still permitted to enter the space. Let's just say that that couple will have strangers showing their wedding pictures all over the globe.

I'm getting way behind on relating stories and images - I have stories waiting to go for the Crypt of the Cappuchin Monks and the interior of the Colosseum, and will hope to get to those next week.

069 piazza della rotunda

2006-07-14T09:29:00.000+01:00

GGGRRRR there's a monkey in my head!

068 foti: crypti balbi

2006-07-14T09:22:00.000+01:00

Below are several photos from Crypti Balbi that go with the text from yesterday.

This is a cross-section of the Crypti Balbi site, photographed from a display in the museum. On the left you can see the ghost of the imperial structure, and the ghost of the medieval structure above. Underground you can see ghosts from different time periods going about their business. And speaking of ghosts, I just realized that my reflection is faintly visible in the image. Eerie.

Above is an example of the quantity of architectural artifacts. These are just the "leftover" pieces jumbled together in a display case, although in the US each one could probably be its own museum.

This is a diagram of the main wall in the museum, color coded to all the different time periods. The colored lines you see represent structural interventions, most unsuccessful in that they actually hindered the historic material. (We still have a lot to learn.)

And a photo of the crypt itself, showing the way you can wind through all these layers of history on a low-slope ramp.

067 un scherzo per gli ingegneri

2006-07-13T10:26:00.000+01:00

In my ongoing research trying to track down the world's experts in preservation engineering, I ran across this email and website

pedelta@pedelta.es
http://www.pedelta.es/

Since the person's last name is Sobrino Almunia, it took me a split second to understand the meaning of the web address.

Very funny for my small audience of structural engineer readers.

066 percorsi d'autobus

2006-07-13T08:59:00.000+01:00

Here is a map that I made that shows where I live - Piazzale Clodio up at the top - and the buses that leave from that station. I take the #23 (red) to work, and #70 when I don't want to walk home from the Centro.

Yesterday I went to the third of the four Rome city museums. This one is not mentioned in any of my 3 tourist books, and a Google query yielded the advice "for serious academics only", so I wasn't sure what to expect. But, as you know, I want to take advantage of my free entry as much as possible.

To re-cap, here are the 4 main city of Rome museums:

Palazzo Altemps - thumbs up! It's close to Piazza Navona, has great statues in a fantastic palace, and it's just the right size (not too big).

Palazzo Massimo - thumbs down! In a city of hundreds of museums, this is one you can skip. The statues and artifacts aren't as interesting as in the other museums in town.

Terme di Diocleziano - The Baths of Diocletion (this doesn't look right but I'm not sure how to spell it in English). I haven't been to this yet.

Crypta Balbi - thumbs up - but only if you are interested in buildings and history! The Crypta Balbi is the story of one city block in Rome over the last 2000+ years. It is an ongoing archelogical site, so when you enter the building at street level, you are in a 2-story space with a large ancient wall in front of you. There are openings in the floor through which you can look down a few more stories at stone walls and foundations.

The main wall of the museum is one small remaining part of the Crypta Balbi, built around 13 BC. The Crypta was a huge complex - a large, rectangular courtyard with interior colonade in a rectangular building. To one end, a semi-circular theatre was appended.

The story of the museum is how this city block changed throughout history. In the imperial era, there was a row of temples to one side. The foundations and portions of the central wall were extended in the Middle Ages, churches and convents came and went, and parts of the museum building itself were constructed in the last few decades. As I've mentioned before, the street level of Rome has gotten higher and higher as time goes by, so the deeper you dig, the older stuff you find.

I especially liked the contemporary museum design and the way it worked around all of the in-situ archeology. Highly recommended (again, if you're into buildings and history).

Happy birthday to my father today!

065 l'isola tiburina

2006-07-13T08:53:00.000+01:00

I suppose that L'Isola Tiburina would be translated as Tiber Island but that sounds really funny. Nevertheless, it's just a small island right in the middle of the Tevere, connected by pedestrian bridges to both sides. They even keep the motorcycles out by means of this curved rod that is navigable on foot but not on moto.

The Fatebenefratelli hospital takes up about 3/4 of the island - the remainder of the space is occupied by this church and adjoining buildings. It's also very important to note that one of my favorite gelato shops is in the building between the tower and church.

064 numero dieci

2006-07-12T12:46:00.000+01:00

The new coaches poll is out. Auburn breaks the top 10 for the first time in club history, but inexplicably trails division rival JMU (that we beat 16-3) by a spot.

#9 JMU
#10 AU
#11 W&M

We eliminated JMU from winning the division. Only Auburn and William and Mary remain, and all will be decided in a show-down on July 25th.

063 capi di pesci

2006-07-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

Today marks the exact midpoint of my trip. Although it's been a lot of fun so far, there's still a lot of stuff to look forward to in the second half. For example, Jason found a cheap ticket, so he booked a trip in the 2nd week in August. Kate will be here in the same time period, and now there's a chance that Lou and Cath will arrive in about two weeks.

Steve and Sara will be in Innsbruck in a week, so I could potentially travel to see them one of these weekends and I also would like to get down to Sicily to see Flavia, Daniele and new baby Giacomo.

Above all that... there's still the snow festival at Santa Maria Maggiore in July, Ferragosto on August 15, the famous late-July Rome clothing sales, and I still haven't been to the beach! Oh, yeah, and I want to get to Pompeii too. So there's lots to do.

Yesterday I added a little counter to my blog. Today it reads that I had 18 hits yesterday, which is surprising but nice. Of course, it could be just one person who visited 18 times.

Things are slowly settling down after Sunday's World Cup victory. Monday night was the craziest to date, with the triumphant heroes flying back to Rome, and escorted into the Centro by fans in a slow procession in their open-air bus. There were ceremonies with the Italian P.M. and President and then more speeches and celebrations at Circo Massimo. I was too tired of the crowds and honking horns to attend this, but yesterday it was broadcast in its entirety on TV, so I got caught up over my dinner of sauteed eggplant, bread, salad, and beer.

Thanks again for the comments, it's nice to know there are people out there interested in what I'm up to.

062 fontana di tritone

2006-07-12T10:18:00.000+01:00

Triton sits on his seashell supported by four fish-dragons or something. I'm not too pleased with this sketch, but in the interest of accuracy in reporting, here it is. I do like the fish head detail, which I put above. :)

This fountain is relatively new - from the Baroque period, designed by Bernini and funded by the Barberini, one of the historical rich and powerful families in Rome. The Barberini symbol is the bee, which is why three bees are wandering around on the statue.

061 arco di constantino

2006-07-12T10:13:00.000+01:00

Dating from around 315 AD, the Arch of Constantine is the most recent of all the triumphal arches in Rome.

060 il foro romano

2006-07-11T09:28:00.000+01:00

A few more picture pages today, enjoy!

Above: The Roman Forum, taken from Capitoline Hill, looking towards the Colloseum, with the Arch of Titus in the background. Palatine Hill is on the right.

Makes a nice screensaver! ;)

059 qui gioco io!

2006-07-11T09:21:00.000+01:00

Did you know that in Rome, dogs speak in the first person? And, they can read? In the U.S., we see signs directed towards people like "No dogs allowed". Also, we take for granted that dogs aren't allowed in restaurants, schools, offices, cafes, buses, etc.

This is not the case in Italy; I have been on many a bus with a loud-mouth canine. So, when a business wants to designate that dogs are not allowed, they put a sign in front that says "Non posso entrare" (I can't come in) with a little picture of a sad dog with a pouty face.

You see endless variations of this concept, but always dogs speaking in the 1st person: "please clean up after me", "I can't play here".

The sketch above is in some of the parks (Villa Borghese, Villa Pamphili). It designates places for dogs to play, and the caption says "I play here!"

S.P.Q.R. is "Senatus Populus Quiritium Romanus" (The Senate and People of Rome), and although it obviously originated in ancient times, it's still used as the trademark of the city.

058 s. maria in trastevere

2006-07-11T09:19:00.000+01:00

Detail from S. Maria in Trastevere, the building dates to about 300 AD, but I'm not sure about this particular mosaic.

057 turisti tipici

2006-07-11T09:17:00.000+01:00

Rome tourists and shoppers in front of the Pantheon considering their next purchases and meals.

056 portico d'ottavia

2006-07-11T09:10:00.000+01:00

I drew this sketch to show some of the historical layers in the Ancient Rome Cake. This was drawn in the Jewish Ghetto, where the Jews were forced to live and attend Mass (that's a church on the right) until relatively recent times.

The oldest layer is on the left - Portico d'Ottavia. Ottavia was the sister of Augustus and this structure dates from about 20 AD. As you move to the right, and up, you can see different street levels and paving. The topmost layer, with the bridges over the archeological ruins, is contemporary Rome - you can walk along these balconies and bridges to get to shops, restaurants, residences, etc.

055 non sono 2 sensa 3

2006-07-10T08:35:00.000+01:00

Wow!

What a great day in sports.

Auburn beats Florida 9-3
Auburn beats JMU 16-3
and Italy beats France in a shootout!

First and foremost, congrats to the 10-2 Tigers, I'm so proud & wish I could have been there. The last 2 games will determine whether we repeat as division champs - Alabama and William & Mary. The JMU victory is especially sweet - anybody remember this a few months ago?

For the World Cup final last night, Diana had some friends over, kinda like a Superbowl party, but instead of beer and chips, there was wine, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, proscuitto with melon, bread, salmon, cherries, coffee, & gelato.

Just before the game started, the network broadcast a montage of Italy highlights over the last month. The background music was the theme from Braveheart with all the bagpipes, which I guess is oddly appropriate. It was strangely exciting to hear this Scottish music loud and in stereo from our TV, the ones from our neighbors in the building, as well as the ones across the street, all while watching the Azzurri score goal after goal on screen.

So, the game began, and things looked pretty grim for the Azzurri at first, with France scoring on a penalty kick only about 7 minutes into the game, but Italy scored on a corner kick before the end of the 1st half to tie the game at 1-1. The second half of regulation was scoreless, as was the 1st OT, and the 2nd OT. So the game was decided on a kick off, 5 tries for each team, France misses the 2nd attempt and Italy wins it all!

I went out into the streets with everyone else in town, on foot, in cars, and on motorcycles, everyone clad in Italian flags and colors, singing songs, setting off fireworks and smoke bombs, standing on top of public buses, everyone yelling CAMPEONI DEL MONDO, some people spray painting "campeoni del mondo", chanting, HONKING, air horning, clapping, taking off clothes, jumping in fountains, throwing beer in the air... a little crazy.

It was not at all similar to the Superbowl, but definitely similar to the Auburn-Alabama game, but in a much, much larger city.

I took a lot of photos and movies, but when I went to download today they disappeared from my camera again. I'm starting to worry that my memory card is corrupt. The exact same thing happened to this guy. If anyone has any ideas about how to remedy this, I'm all ears.

Anyway, here's a photo I found online at Piazza del Popolo, where I was at, to give you an idea.

And similar celebrations at the Fontana di Trevi:

And here are the answers to the TV show quiz.

054 oggi: disegni

2006-07-07T09:38:00.000+01:00

I'm getting behind with posting sketches and images, so will post a short series today. Enjoy! (above: Piazza del Popolo).

053 hanno votato che no

2006-07-07T09:37:00.000+01:00

The "no" faction won the recent constitutional referendum vote, 60%-40%.

052 un presagio di domenica?

2006-07-07T09:32:00.000+01:00

Is this merely a "Wounded Gaul" or a precursor to Sunday night?

051 constantino: che capelli!

2006-07-07T09:27:00.000+01:00

Here are the remaining pieces of Constantine's collosal ode to himself: his head, bicep, knee, and hand. Make sure you get a sense of scale from the door at the right. The bicep fragment is about 2 feet taller than me. Yeah, nice hairdo, guy. Way to be the best.

050 io con il dio del fiume

2006-07-07T09:23:00.000+01:00

Here I am with the River God in the Capitoline Museums. It's not Neptune, just an unspecified River God. Tourist tip: go to the Museums in the last 2 hours they are open. If you spend more than 2 hours in a museum your eyes will glaze over anyway, and it's so much more pleasant when there are no people!

I think the person that chose to put this tiny sneering prude of a nobleman over the enormous Bacchus-like river god had a great sense of humor.

049 gioco delli film

2006-07-07T09:18:00.000+01:00

Here are the translations to help you out

Una Donna alla Casa Bianca -> yes, it's Commander in Chief.
Radio America (Movie) -> um, translation is obvious.
Una Mamma per Amica (TV) -> A Mother for a Friend
Ti Presento I Miei -> (TV) I Present (to you) All of Mine

ANSWERS:

Commander in Chief
A Prairie Home Companion
Gilmore Girls
Arrested Development

047 titoli di film

2006-07-06T09:12:00.000+01:00

It's always interesting to see how film titles are translated from one language to another. Some things truly do not translate, and sometimes the title is translated to make it more appealing to the target audience. Here are the Italian titles of four current American TV shows and movies. Can you can guess what they are? (NO GOOGLING!)

Una Donna alla Casa Bianca (TV)
Radio America (Movie)
Una Mamma per Amica (TV)
Ti Presento I Miei (the same title for 1 US TV show & 1 US movie)

Last week I bought my July bus card for 30 euros. I did this in spite of the fact that I have not yet seen an inspector checking tickets on the buses or trains and I could have travelled for free all of June. Those 30 euros I spent for June would have bought me a really nice dinner one night...

046 italia vince germania!

2006-07-05T08:15:00.000+01:00

(above: Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere)

Mondiale: Last night was so exciting! Italy and Germany were scoreless through regulation time. The first overtime period yielded no score. The second overtime was almost over, when Italy scored two goals in the last minute of overtime. The city went wild, screaming and shouting and horns honking all over town. I was going to go to the Centro to try to get some photos but due to the overtime, it already was well after midnight, so I decided not to go out. I'm counting on Italy beating France or Portugal in the final next Sunday, and I promise to go get photos then. :)

(above: detail from S. Maria in Trastevere.) It's such a pleasant change to see women depicted rather than always men - this is the only place in Rome I've seen like this. This is also one of the oldest mosaics - really makes you wonder what happened in civilization over the last 1500 years.

044 piazza navona

2006-07-04T08:01:00.000+01:00

(above: Piazza Navona, which you have surely read about in "Angels and Demons" by now)

Last week, I published a personal ad on Craigslist for an English-Italian language swap. I have received about a dozen responses, some interesting, some humorous, some creepy. The one that was the most interesting was an archeologist named Nicoletta, and I arranged to meet her for gelato last night.

It was a great match - we both are genuinely interested in learning the language, and have a lot of similar interests to boot (history, archeology, architecture). Working in archeology in Rome means working with tourists, so being able to speak English is essential for her.

The idea was to speak in Italian the 1st half and in English the second half. It turns out that we are both pretty proficient at communicating (albeit with some grammatical and pronunciation errors), but surprisingly, we both struggled the most at listening comprehension and had to slow waaaay down for each other when speaking in our native tongues. We chatted over gelato (I had chocolate & raspberry) for a few hours last night, talking about a variety of things. At one point, she asked me where I was living.

I told her all about living with Delfina and Diana, and she replied "Delfina is an unusual name, I met someone named Delfina not too long ago up by Piazzale Clodio, she was with an American girl named Lucia, I wonder if it's the same Delfina?" Uhhhhhhh, yup, that's her. The population of Rome is 2.6 million people in the city limits alone, so the odds of this are statistically impossible. Nicoletta also knows Giorgio Croci, but this is less surprising, since she's an archeologist.

I'm going to call this the Flavia Effect. When I was getting to know Flavia in Auburn, I was always amazed and amused to see how many people knew her in any given part of town. We could be walking down College Street, on campus, in Opelika, but everywhere we went, every 4th person we passed would say - "Ciao Flavia!" "Hey Flavia!" "What's up Flavia!".

TONIGHT: Italy vs. Germany. The winner goes to the championship game Sunday night.

GET JEALOUS: My office hours for the rest of my time here are 8:30 to 2:30.

043 chiavi da diana

2006-07-04T07:59:00.000+01:00

My new house key is friggin awesome.

042 palazzo altemps

2006-07-03T08:54:00.000+01:00

Above: view of Piazza del Popolo. Look carefully at the Egyptian obelisk, it's actually just scaffolding.

Saturday was my move day, and it took longer than I thought to compile my suitcase of possessions, make sure Delfina's house was neat and clean, drag everything a few blocks over, and unpack again. But I really like my new place - I have a nice view out of my window, my own private wall-mounted remote control air conditioner, and an incredible library in my room... Diana studied Anthropology at university (La Sapienza here in Rome), so she has history books, books on culture from all over the world, and a lot of feminist books. The collection is about half english, half italian, so I will have plenty of reading material for the remainder of my stay here. Of course, I'm pretty caught up in re-reading Atlas Shrugged for the umpteenth time.

Mondiale: Italy wins again, and now we are down to an all-European final four: Italy, France, Portugal, and Germany. Italy plays Germany tomorrow night at 9 pm Rome time (3 pm EST). One more win gets them into the championship game, but Germany will have the home field advantage.

A linguistic note about buses. In DC, when the driver doesn't open the back door, the proper response for a passenger is "back door". That's it, just a noun. In Rome, the proper response is "apre" (open), just a verb. In one case the verb is implied, in the other case the noun is implied.

On Sunday I went to see Palazzo Altemps, one of the 4 Roman history museums. The museum is located in the heart of the Centro, close to Piazza Navona. The museum consists exclusively of ancient sculptures, almost all depicting Greek and Roman deities - Athena, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hera, Mars, Neptune, etc. The museum closed at 7:30; since I arrived at 5:30 pm and was more or less alone the entire time. It was actually pretty eerie being alone in the dark rooms with 12-foot-tall statues of Athena and friends towering over me.

The key piece of the Museum is the sculpture entitled Suicide of the Gaul and his Wife.

As of yesterday, there's a new candidate in the lead for Most Obnoxious American Tourist: a woman trying to buy fast food at a stand at the side of the road. "Do you take credit cards?" (louder) "Credit card?" "CREDIT CARD?" (even louder) "CREDIT CARDA, CREDIT CARDA?" (then showing him her card and pointing to it) "CREDIT CARDA!!!!!!!!!!!"

041 santa cecilia in trastevere

2006-06-30T10:09:00.000+01:00

This church, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, is just one block over from my office, and I frequently peek in the courtyard to see if it is open, but it is always, always closed. Until yesterday afternoon, when I saw that the doors were open. I hung around in the courtyard for a few minutes, trying to deduce whether there was something going on in the church, and after a few tourists entered the church, I pulled on my black sweater (bare shoulders are a no-no in Italian churches; I had short sleeves on but didn't want to take any chances) and slipped inside.

The church was built on the spot where poor Cecilia was martyred in the 3rd century. The story goes that when she was exposed as a Christian, she was locked in her bathroom, doomed to die from suffocation from steam. However, she survived this, singing the entire time, which is why she is the patron saint of music. Additionally, the main music academy here in Rome is named after her.

Next, a Roman soldier tried to decapitate her three times, but he was unsuccessful in the short term; she died three days later. The sculpture on the main altar shows Cecilia with a gruesome divot in the marble for her neck, and she is buried below the church. A quick internet search shows that many history scholars think that the Cecilia story is a myth invented in the 500s, but it's interesting nonetheless.

This morning, I talked to an intern from Canada today, Camille, and she said that the first thing she was going to do when she got back home was rent the Indiana Jones movies, which I thought was hilarious, because I was recently thinking the exact same thing!

040 mangia, mangia!

2006-06-30T10:04:00.000+01:00

Here is dinner from a few nights ago for those interested in food. This is cherry tomatoes, garlic and zucchini on polenta vegetable patties. Lots of olive oil to accompany the bread, mmmm.

039 questa ragazza e delfina

2006-06-30T10:01:00.000+01:00

I'm not going to see Delfina again because she's going to her mother's house again tonight and I move to Diana's tomorrow morning, and then she goes to Israel on Sunday. So I took her photo this morning, although she thought it was a little silly.

038 salviamo il vaso di fiore

2006-06-29T08:45:00.000+01:00

Something is going on in Rome today, but I don't know what. There was very little traffic today, and then when I passed the Vatican Museums, there was no line, meaning they are closed. ICCROM is definitely open, but it seems that most businesses are closed. Interesting. I thought it might be church related, but it's just the feast day of St. Peter & Paul, doesn't seem likely. Nothing on the Repubblica webpage either.

On my box of cornflakes this morning, I was looking at the Italian food pyramid. Here it is in comparison to the FDA food pyramid.

Italy.
Sweets/Desserts: 1 serving
Meat/Fish/Beans: 1-2 servings
Milk/Yogurt/Cheese: 2-3 servings
Oils/Fats: 3-4 servings
Bread/Pasta/Rice: 4-5 servings
Fruits/Veggies: 5-6 servings

FDA.
Fats/Oils/Sweets: "Use sparingly"
Meat/Fish/Beans: 2-4 servings
Milk/Yogurt: 2-3 servings
Fruits: 2-3 servings
Vegetables: 3-5 servings
Bread/Cereal/Rice/Pasta: 6-11 servings

Pretty funny stuff to compare and contrast. The US recommends about twice as many bread/rice/pasta carbs as Italy. And Italy just goes ahead and tells you to get your 1 serving of dessert in each day because EVERYONE NEEDS ICE CREAM! And Italy tells you to get in your 3-4 servings of oils/fats (read: olive oil), while you should only use these sparingly in the US. And it's definitely not a surprise that the US is supposed to eat twice as much meat as Italy (and everywhere else in the world).

(Soapbox time: cut down on your meat intake! It's good for you and good for the planet!)

I'm still a little under the weather today but feeling better. I expect to be 100% by the weekend. I'm thinking about going to the beach.

037 ci sono soltante 8 squadre

2006-06-28T10:28:00.000+01:00

And then there were eight...

Friday:
Germany vs. Argentina
Italy vs. Ukraine

Saturday:
England vs. Portugal
Brazil vs. France

Auburn softball: up to #14 in this week's coaches poll. Next game is a double-header against Florida & JMU on July 9, and I'm soooo nervous! We need to win these for respect in the league. Wish I could be there.

Chicago Cubs: 14 games behind, and in 5th place in the NL Central.

Washington DC: flooded. Is it bad that I'm laughing thinking of all the 4th of July tourists stuck in their hotel rooms?

Delfina: MIA last night. Left me a note saying she'll be back on Thursday but I have no idea why she left. This weekend I move over to Diana's house, a few blocks over, and Delfina goes to Israel for July & August.

NMUSA: Poor Kate.

036 auditorium

2006-06-28T09:02:00.000+01:00

Auditorium: a new music hall in the northern suburbs by Renzo Piano.

It consists of 3 shoe-box music halls of varying sizes, clad in these lead armatures, with an open-air performance space in the middle.

Today looks to be busy, so that's it for now!

035 italia vince!

2006-06-27T10:21:00.000+01:00

Ciao tutti, thought I'd post a picture of just a normal, every-day street in Rome.

OK. Calcio. Game time was at 5 pm local time, and I didn't get off work until 6 pm, so I walked through Trastevere until I found a bar with a visible TV. The bar was packed with people, so I joined a small crowd in the street standing up & watching the game.

The score was 0-0 through regular play, and in the "extra time", time was about to expire when an Australian player caused an Italian player with a chance at scoring to fall down. The ref called a penalty, and on the free kick, Totti scored a goal for Italy as time expired! It was very exciting, and I saw people dancing silly little dances in the streets immediately afterwards.

Then, for the next 2 or 3 hours, all I heard was honking horns, people singing songs, and the roar of motorcycles and flap of red, green, & white flags. Crazy!

So, on the controversial reffing call, Italy advances to the Elite 8, and will next face Ukraine on Friday night.

034 ara pacis

2006-06-27T09:42:00.000+01:00

The Ara Pacis was commissioned by Augustus in about 10 BC. This is the time period when Rome was going through a transition period from Republic to Empire. It's essentially a small building (above, right) with high-relief sculptured panels around a central altar for sacrifices were made to the Peace goddess (Pacis). Even more interesting than the monument itself is the extremely controversial Richard Meier building that houses it. It is the 1st new building in central Rome for centuries, and the Romans despise it. I mean HATE it.

I have to admit that I agree with them. I have never been a fan of Meier, although now that I think about it, this might have to have something to do with a certain class assignment in college. The detailing on this building is horrible - unsophisticated and cheap. The scale of the building in the context is monstrous. You can see a little in the photo - compare the glass box to the church in the background.

There is an architectural rendering on the fence enclosing the building. This has turned into a public forum to criticize the building, as there are numerous comments written on the rendering by passersby, things like "the architects were much better centuries ago, go home Meier, this building is a sin, this much money for this piece of crap, etc etc".

At least here people notice the architecture - ugly buildings are built in the US every day, and no one even seems to have an opinion.

033 una aquarella degli mercati

2006-06-27T09:11:00.000+01:00

Sketch from I Mercati di Traiano

031 i mercati di traiano

2006-06-26T09:13:00.000+01:00

Last Friday was the 10-year reunion from the 1996 ARC Course here at ICCROM. I didn't know what to expect, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some further background on what the courses here are like, since I'm starting one from scratch.

There were about 16 participants from all over the world, mostly architects, but also archeologists, urban planners, and straight-up conservators. Each one got to make a presentation about their projects over the last ten years and it was fascinating! On Saturday, I went on the World Tour with them to (1) Mercati di Traiano (i.e. Trajan's Markets), (2) Ara Pacis, and (3) Auditorium.

I Mercati di Traiano begin on Via Nazionale on top of a hill and then a series of structures terrace down the hill. This photo (above) is the main space. A restoration project is currently underway for structural strengthening, so it is now closed to the public. It's a little disturbing that all buildings, no matter how old or historic, must be brought up to the same level of seismic design as new buildings, so part of the structural strengthening is a series of stainless steel rods that go completely through each structural bay of the basilica-type structure.

Sono qui! (above), & a view of Trajan's Market (below).

I'll write more later about the Ara Pacis & Auditorium - both very interesting.

030 calcio

2006-06-26T08:22:00.000+01:00

Jason sent this to me and it's just too funny not to pass on.
http://refereequeen.ytmnd.com/

029 ho finito 3 settimane nel lavoro

2006-06-23T09:52:00.000+01:00

A Collage of a Variety of Things in Rome:
1. Trastevere, 2. Tempietto Antico, 3. Arco di Constantino,
4. Bramante, 5. Detail from Mausoleo di Adriano, 6. Castel Sant'Angelo,
7. Trastevere, 8. Via Appia Antica, 9. Random Temple

This morning was very stressful! Delfina is still at her mother's house, so I am alone in the apartment. A woman comes to clean every Friday at 7 am, so I made sure I was up at 6:45 in order to buzz her in the building. At 7 am, the citofono buzzes, so I answer "pronto". A masculine voice answers, and I can't understand through the static, so I assume it must be Elena and buzz her in. A minute later, there is a man knocking on the door, this is definitely not Elena. So then, I proceed to have a conversation in Italian through a wood door right after getting out of bed. Anything but ideal circumstances. I still don't know what he wanted, but I convinced him that I'm a friend of the apartment owner and that she is with her family and he will have to return on Monday. Whew.

Then, about 30 minutes later, someone else knocks on the door! There's still no sign of Elena. This time it's some kind of maintenance man for the condominium, and I understand the part where he tells me that he's cleaning the stairs, but I still don't know what he wants. So I explain again how I'm sorry but I can't let him in, the woman who owns the apartment isn't here, etc. When I leave, I realize what he wanted - he rolled the doormat up on end, leaned it against the wall, and put a small wood box in the middle. I saw him as I left the building and now that I had the context of the situation, he spoke to me again, and this time I could understand that he was just trying to give me the package. So, to sum up, I definitely had a huge linguistic failure this morning. I called Delfina a little while ago to let her know the cleaning woman did not arrive, so she's going to check into that.

Today is an exciting day - it's the 10 year reunion of the 1996 ICCROM Architectural Conservation Course. The courses have lasted as long as 6 months, historically, although the 1996 course only lasted 3 months. So it's a group of 20 individuals from all over the world that are very close, and they will all be giving presentations this afternoon on their projects in conservation over the last 10 years. Tomorrow will be especially exciting, because I will be joining them in a tour of several projects around Rome - Trajan's Market, which is currently being restored under Giorgio Croci, one of the top preservation engineers in the world (who will give us the tour); Richard Meier's building that houses the Ara Pacis; and Renzo Piano's new Auditorium music hall. Very exciting!

028 qui sono al campidoglio

2006-06-22T09:31:00.000+01:00

Although apparently I give a good outward appearance of being Italian (people, mostly Italians, ask me for directions non-stop), I'm feeling a little frustrated with my lack of language acquisition so far. Maybe it's because Delfina's out of town this week so I'm not speaking Italian at night with her. Regardless, I'm going to the bookstore after work today to try to get some flashcards (pre-made or blank). I'm also trying to find a source for Pimsleur Italian. I may post an ad on expatriates.com.

Auburn softball moves up to #15 in this week's coaches poll. Since we are leading our division, we get the honor of coaching the All-Star game coming up in 2 weeks. Yes, I'm a little sad that I'm not there to coach the All-Star game, but I'm sure JG will do a great job.

And tonight's a big night in the Mondiale - 2 of the following 4 teams will be eliminated after tonight. Tune in at 4 pm Italy time or 10 am EST: US vs Ghana and Italy vs Czech Republic.

027 miei documenti

2006-06-22T09:16:00.000+01:00

Ooooh, yesterday I got an official card from the Italian government (Ministry of Culture) that gives me free entrance to pretty much anything in Rome. I am very excited. The ICOMOS card gets you in to the bigger places (Vatican Museums, Castel Sant'Angelo), but I doubt that it would be recognized in the smaller places. So now, I don't have to worry about spending 10 euros to visit the Colosseum. It doesn't seem like much, but these things can add up quickly. So now, between these 3 IDs, I shouldn't have any problems getting into any museums or cultural sites in the city, so I will be visiting Villa Borghese, Villa Farnese, Museo Capitolino, Musei Vaticani, Catacombe, etc etc.

Also, you'll notice that my title on the card is Dr.sa., which stands for "dottoressa". This translates directly to 'doctor', but it is really just a title given to anyone with a college degree.

026 climatizzazione

2006-06-21T09:12:00.000+01:00

I recently read a book called Ciao America! by Beppe Severgnini.

The author, an Italian, lived in Georgetown (in DC) for a few years, writing about the humor of American culture. I wouldn't say it's a great book, but it's an interesting read. I have it at home if anyone wants to borrow it. He also wrote a similar book about Italians, and a third about the Brits, although I have read neither.

In the book, he was incredulous about the level of addiction to air conditioning in the US, which I agree with. But now that I am here in Italy I have a new appreciation for air conditioning. Neither my office nor my home has air conditioning. At home, it's fine because of the thermal mass of the walls and the fact that I am on the 2nd floor of a 10 story building. And I'm only there in the early morning and evening.

At the office, however, I am on the 4th floor of a 4-story building, with an office window facing south-east. And it is HOT. By mid-morning, I am sweating.

Quite a change from working in Georgetown where there is so much air conditioning that you get blasts of cold air from all of the shops and restaurants all down M Street.

025 colosseo in 4 foto

2006-06-21T08:43:00.000+01:00

1. Overall image for context (not photoshopped)

2. Brick wall introduced (unknown date), presumably
to stabilize the end condition of the wall and prevent collapse.
This type of intervention is not en vogue among preservationists
and conservationists today. Pros: structural stability,
life safety, easy to distinguish that this is not original,
clearly marked with date of intervention on placards.
Cons: does not retain monument in original form,
is not a reversible intervention, does not adhere to
"minimal intervention" policy and is a severe change
to substructure and foundation system. (The foundation of
the Colosseum consists of at least one more layer of arched
walls subgrade.)

3. End bay - this arch is obviously collapsing. Without the
intervention of the brick wall as backup, this portion of
the wall would surely have collapsed.

4. Close up view of the cracking and displacement
of the masonry. I don't know how the stones have been
attached to the newer brick wall. One of the important
precepts of preservation/conservation is to use compatible
materials in both chemical compatibility and mechanical
(displacement) compatibility. (If I have some time, I could
get the answer in the library here of course!)

024 gradini curvi

2006-06-20T08:51:00.000+01:00

These brick steps are located at the south end of the Roman Forum.

My task of late at work has been to research trends across the world in structural engineering, and gather information about what the current state of practice is in each country. I am also trying to identify all pertinent international organizations and experts in the field. All of this research will go towards creating a survey to be sent out to the 180 ICCROM Member nations, and then to a course outline with some degree of universality to it.

The difficulty so far as been narrowing the search, since:
the structural engineering of the built heritage is a subset of
structural engineering of existing buildings is a subset of
structural engineering is a subset of
civil engineering is a subset of
engineering.

For example, I have found numerous plain-vanilla "engineering" international organizations but very few that specialize in just one branch, such as civil engineering. My best bets so far are the ICOMOS structural restoration charter and the Existing Structures Commission of the IABSE (International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering).

I have discovered some interesting information about roles of architects vs. structural engineers around the world. In some cultures, generally in the Far East (Korea, Sri Lanka are 2 case studies), architects have all of the technical engineering of a structural engineer in the US. However, the US/UK model is to have structural engineering as a separate profession. I found an interesting document (interesting to me) explaining the differences in the US between an architectural and engineering education, internships, and professional registration.

Bonus: my bio is now posted in French.

023 via appia antica

2006-06-19T17:31:00.000+01:00

About to head out before the office is locked down for the night, and wanted to post this photo of the lovely Appian Way. See the grooves in the stone after years of travel?

By the way, this reminds me of Respighi's Pini di Roma. The pines specified in the movement titles are:

Pines of Villa Borghese (see sketch below)
Pines near a Catacomb
Pines of the Janiculum (will post photo later)
Pines of the Appian Way (photo above)

Also, in the Pimsleur Italian CDs, when you learn the word for street (via), the example used is Via Veneto. Every time they want to quiz you, they ask things like 'where is via veneto', 'excuse me sir, is that via veneto', etc. Well, I realized today that the American embassy is on Via Veneto here in Rome, and now I'm curious if the same thing is used for other languages in the Pimsleur program, or whether it was just a coincidence.

022 villa borghese

2006-06-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I spent most of the day at Villa Borghese, a park on the north side of Rome. I didn't go in any of the 4 museums (Museo Borghese, Museo Etrusco, Arte Moderno, Pietro Canonica) and instead walked around, enjoying the fresh air, people watching, and doing a little sketching.

I was getting really dehydrated and thirsty while finishing this sketch, and when I asked the man in the tourist information office where was the closest place for water, he looked at me a little funny and then said, I'll go get you a glass. He brings a glass back to me and opens the back door of the building, into what is literally called the Secret Gardens (Giardini Segreti). It's a beautiful formal/classical flower garden in a courtyard with Renaissance architecture. I get water from the running fountain in the wall, enjoy the view, and leave, thanking the man. He says, no problem, and starts complimenting me on this sketch (he had apparently snuck up behind me while I was sketching and looked over my shoulder).

So, we chat a little bit about the park, and some American tourists come up with their maps and ask to be let into the Secret Garden. He tells them in English, "sorry, no one is allowed to see it, no exceptions, blah blah blah".

So once again, my sketchbook gets me into places that aren't normally accessible.